Christie lawyer seeks to use campaign funds for subpoena expenses

Feb. 10, 2014

Gov. Chris Christie

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TRENTON — A lawyer for Gov. Chris Christie is asking the state’s political financing monitor to rule whether campaign funds can be used to cover expenses answering subpoenas issued by a joint legislative committee and the U.S. Attorney’s office investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures in September.

In a letter to the commission, attorney Mark D. Sheridan, of the Newark law firm Patton Boggs, says allowing the use of the governor’s re-election campaign funds “is plainly in the public interest” and would allow investigators “to fulfill their responsibilities in a timely fashion.”

And if the campaign — formally called Chris Christie for Governor — is unable to comply with the subpoenas, it could face contempt charges, Sheridan wrote.

In the letter, Sheridan offers justification for using the campaign funds. The subpoenas were served directly to the campaign and “seek documents and other electronic materials within the control of the candidate committee and its employees.”

It isn’t clear how much answering the subpoenas could cost. The letter says doing so will require the campaign committee to retain a vendor “at a significant cost” to preserve the data on computers, tablets and smart phones. The campaign committee will also have to spend for attorney fees and costs to review the data for relevance and privilege.

The fund has about $126,600 on hand, according to the letter.

The subpoenas were issued on Jan. 17. The legislative body, called the Select Committee on Investigation, set a deadline of Feb. 3 for documents to be returned; the U.S. Attorney’s deadline was Feb. 5, according to the letter. In both cases the governor’s committee has requested extensions while waiting for an opinion from the election commission, which meets at 11 a.m. Tuesday.